AdminXP.com: Installation of Windows XP SP2 to a PC with an unrecognized SATA disk

Installation of Windows XP SP2 to a PC with an unrecognized SATA disk

There may appear a problem with some newer disk or RAID controllers. When installing Windows XP, the error message "disk not found" appears. Apart from situations, such as disk, cable or HW defects, you have, depending on the particular PC, several options:
1. In case you have an FDD drive, visit the website of the manufacturer of the motherboard or PC, as they usually provide downloads of SATA drivers (it is a controller driver, not disk driver) which is intended to be downloaded and saved on a floppy disk. Then, during installation, you press the F6 key to start the driver installation. And the job is complete. Many newer PCs, and NTBs especially, do not have an FDD drive. In such case, you have to use an external USB FDD drive (not all USB drives work - sometimes they are not compatible with drivers in Windows).
2. In the BIOS system, disable extended support of SATA (there are different options based on particular versions of BIOS, e.g. 1. Set up the Native SATA as Disabled, 2. SATA Mode to Compatible or IDE Mode (Enhanced or AHCI is not correct). In some BIOS systems, this option is missing and the problem must be solved using previous options. You can sometimes find this option in newer versions, e.g. in our case of the NTB Extensa 5220 this option in the version BIOS 1.16 was missing, but when we updated to 1.21, we could change the settings for SATA mode. Some users leave the extended SATA support disabled, others enable this feature after the installation of Windows XP and install additional drivers.
3. The newer Windows Vista system which includes disk detection feature does not have any problems (my experience is that disks which did not allow to install XP, had no problems with Vista).

Example of a creation of an installation CD including a driver for SATA controller using the nLite program

What do I need: a PC with Windows and installed .NET Framework 2.0, nLite program, folder with files copied from the Windows XP SP2 installation CD, burning drive with an appropriate burning software.
On the Acer website, I search for a download section. In our case of the Extensa 5220 notebook I download the F6 Intel SATA HDD Driver Floppy Utility. I create a floppy disk with driver.
After launching the program, I choose a language.
I choose the directory where the installation files of Windows XP are copied.
In the task selection I choose Integration of drivers and create a boot ISO image.

Choosing Integration of drivers

In drivers, I choose Insert (Multiple drivers folder) and I continue to the floppy drive and mark all drivers.
I confirm launching of the process. In order to finish I confirm the option for creating ISO image, or burning to a CD. After clicking the Create ISO button, I am choosing the name of the image and its location on the hard drive.
After the CD has been burnt and installation launched, the installation should be executed without problems.

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